Archive for the ‘ Victim’s Rights ’ Category

Serial Killer Gets Death Penalty

A jury on Tuesday voted for the death penalty for a former security guard already serving a life sentence for multiple murders.

Michael Hughes, 55, was convicted last month for three additional slayings. The seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated just under 30 minutes before voting for the death penalty, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. He will be sentenced March 29 before Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe.

In 1998, Hughes was convicted of killing four women, three of whom were choked to death and dumped in alleys in a commercial area of Culver City. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He was linked by Los Angeles Police Department cold-case homicide detectives using DNA evidence to the strangulation slayings of four more victims, ages 15 to 36. Last month, he was convicted in three of those killings: of Yvonne Coleman, 15; Verna Patricia Williams, 36; and Deborah Jackson, 32, also known as Harriet McKinley.

The killings came in an era when authorities say at least five serial killers, possibly more, were active in the South Los Angeles area. During the 1980s and early ’90s, these killers primarily targeted young African American women, dumping their bodies in alleys, vacant buildings or parks.

At the time, the eight killings were footnotes in an era of unprecedented violence in Los Angeles that began in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, the number of homicides had soared to more than 1,000 annually compared with around 300 today.

Authorities have long suspected that Hughes was linked to killings beyond Los Angeles because of his frequent movements. He lived in Long Beach, San Diego and Michigan.

Here 

Let’s hope he dies from his sentence before he dies from old age.

Concerns Over Serial Killer Parole Hearings

Parole Concerns

Eyewitness News has learnt that police are extremely concerned about a series of parole hearings due to take place before the end of the year involving some of the country’s most notorious serial killers.

Correspondence between the police and the Department of Correctional Services shows that at least one parole report has been compiled without any mention of the fact that the applicant is a serial offender.

The police’s concern is that hearings could be held without the parole boards being given all the background facts.

However, the department said these kinds of cases are treated with extreme caution and few parole applications are actually granted.

A court ruling earlier in 2011 allowed certain prisoners serving life sentences to apply for parole earlier than expected.

Eyewitness News understands the police’s investigative psychology section has identified a group of around 10 serial killers including Stewart Wilken, Bongani Mfeka and Norman Hobkirk.

The section’s fear is that files detailing their crimes can get lost in the prisons system and that if a prisoner is transferred not all of his files travel with him.

This means parole boards risk making decision without having all the information.

However, the department is adamant the parole hearings are thorough and inmates who pose a danger to society will not be set free under any circumstances.

Retired sleuth Piet Byleveld has said these types of criminals cannot be rehabilitated and should remain behind bars.

 

This is not unheard of. Parole Boards do not always get to hear the full impact of the crimes that were commited. That is why so many victim’s families make sure to appear at all parole hearing, same thing with district attorneys.

Paperwork not only gets lost but sometimes they get scanned over instead of actually being read. I know that is not how it is supposed to work, but let’s be honest. Mistakes get made and in thhe case of releasing a violent criminal that mistake can cost lives.

I can not believe that these guys are on the list of prisoners that could get paroled. Aren’t there any non-violent offenders for the list?

Stewart Wilken

Stewart Wilken appeared in court on February 3, 1997, charged with the murders of his daughter and Henry Bakers. Over the months that followed, more charges were added as the police connected the crimes detailed in his confession with existing murder dockets. The final charge sheet listed 10 counts of murder and five of sodomy.

Both Dr. Micki Pistorius and Prof. Tuviah Zabow testified that serial killers in general and Wilken in particular cannot be rehabilitated. At least once during the trial, while Dr. Pistorius was testifying, Wilken asked to be excused to go to the bathroom. On his way he indicated to Sgt. Norsworthy that he was going to masturbate.

Bongani Mfeka

Samuel Bongani Mfeka was arrested on September 8, 1996, in KwaZulu Natal on a rape charge. While in custody Samuel pointed out six areas where the bodies of women who had been raped and strangled were hidden.
The first murder dates to 1993 following the discovery of a body in Carletonville. Another body was found in the veld in Vrede in November, 1994. The four other bodies have since been found in the Kranskop area. The last body found on September 8, 1996, was in an advanced state of decomposition. According to a police source, four of the bodies were found within easy distance of the suspect’s house in a rural area in KwaZulu Natal.
A police spokesman announced that Mfeka was also being questioned in relation to the 15 bodies attributed to the “Nasrec Strangler”. Although he has not been officially charged with the killings, they have spotted similarities between both killers. Detectives are also searching for another man who may have been an accomplice of the suspect. He too is wanted for questioning in connection with the Nasrec murders.

Norman Hobkirk

(From the court document)

1. All three victims had had their trousers and underpants removed and were left lying half-naked from the waist down.

2. All three victims had multiple injuries, way in excess of that which would be necessary to kill a person.

3. There had been actual physical contact between each victim and the aggressor.

4. All three victims were killed with a sharp instrument.

5. The victims had not apparently been robbed.

6. There were none of the usually apparent motives, such as anger, jealousy, greed and so on.

7. The victims were not in a position to put up much resistance. In the case of the first two the blood alcohol test, conducted as a result of the post-mortem examination, showed that they were under the influence of alcohol to a considerable extent at the time that they were killed. The third deceased was a frail elderly man.

8. The attacks took place in a highly localised area in Bertrams, Johannesburg, within a radius of 200 metres of each other.

9. The victims were all male.

10. In the last two cases the bodies of the victims had been burned after they had been killed. The killings bore the hallmarks of what is colloquially known as “a serial killer”. With regard to charge 1 the evidence of the state may be summarised as follows:

11. There was the testimony of the eyewitness Matilda Stigling, She was about 11 or 1 2 years old at the time that deceased 1 was killed. She had known the accused since she was 4 years old. They had lived in the same street in Bertrams. They were related to each other by marriage. On the late afternoon or early evening of 28 November 1992 she had been walking towards the Maurice Freeman Recreation Centre on her way to the shops. On her way she saw the accused attacking the first deceased with a brick and then grab him and attack him further. She then ran away. She had recognised the first deceased having seen him quite often in the area for some ten days prior to the incident. She told her mother about the incident upon arriving home. What she had seen had not been reported to the police because her mother did not want to get involved. 

These are not robberies gone bad or accidents, these are some very brutal killings. Why are they on a list for possible parole? It is scary that anyone in the same government that decided to put them on the list might have a say as to whether or not they get parole.

 

Can You Identify This Woman?

The FBI has released the photo of a woman believed to be an additional victim of sexual torture and murder at the hands of suspected serial killer David Parker Ray of New Mexico.

Ray was convicted and sentenced to 223 years in prison for kidnapping and torturing two women. In 2002, he died in state prison, but the FBI has retrieved evidence, they believe link another woman to the murderer.

ImageAt a press conference in Albuquerque, Frank Fisher, spokesman for the bureau said, “We have a suspicion that this woman may have had contact with him, And we would really like to know what her name was, and if we could talk to her.”

In 1999, Ray was arrested after one of his victims managed to escape.

Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo was found naked, wearing only a dog collar and chain. She told police she was tortured in Ray’s home, and in 2001 he was sent to prison where he died the following year.

Though he wrote of more than 40 victims, the FBI has only been able to identify two of them.

Recently, the FBI released photos of itemsfound in Ray’s possession in the hope that someone would recognize something and help them identify to whom it belonged.

Jaramillio, now 33, spoke at the conference Friday, saying, “These people need to be returned to their families, whether they’re gone or not. They didn’t have to go through what I went through but they did. And they probably didn’t make it (out) like I did.”

She stated that while she was held by Ray, he bragged about those he had killed.

Anyone with information regarding possible victims of David Parker Ray is asked to contact FBI Albuquerque at (505) 889-1300.Image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original Article 

 

Hopefully someone can identify her. Maybe she will see her photo and let the police know that she is fine.

 

 

Parole Denied for New Zealand Serial Killer

A man labelled New Zealand’s first serial killer who killed two prostitutes and a massage parlour boss in Auckland in 1996 is on the verge of having his prison security risk reduced but won’t be released any time soon.

Hayden Poulter admitted raping and killing prostitute Natacha Hogan in October 1996 and confessed to stabbing sex worker Ladda Nimphet and her boss Herbert Richard Norris on the same night later that year.

Poulter, a 35-year-old labourer at the time of the murderers, became eligible for parole this month after being jailed for at least 15 years in 1997.

He told police that his second personality “Hell” drove him to commit the murders and also the attempted murder of another sex worker Angkana Chaisamret.

He still blames drugs and “Hell” for the murders. That means that he can not have real remorse.  He is still lessening his role, what he did. It means that he is also still lying.

Dissociative identity disorder is extremely rare and it comes with other signs and symptoms This sounds like he took a page from Kenneth Bianchi’s book.

His murders were violent brutal acts that according to Judge Carruthers had “marked aspects of planning”. These were not drug crazed murders. They were the murders of a predator.

 

At his first appearance before the parole board via video conference last month Poulter said he was deeply remorseful and sad about what had happened and that he felt strongly for the families of his victims.

Judge David Carruthers said the board has been told that Poulter was assessed as a low-medium security risk in prison and that was due to be downgraded to minimum.

Poulter, now 50, had gained a university qualification in prison and some of his artwork sold on online auction site TradeMe last month.

He admitted being a drug addict after undergoing a drug treatment programme and was now mentoring others on the programme. He was due to undertake a sex offenders treatment programme.

It is very easy for serial criminals to behave in custody. The schedules, the fact that they know that they are being watched and the fact that the possibility of future freedom will be based on their actions all lend to how they behave. It also allows them to learn to manipulate others better.

Look at Arthur Shawcross or Edmund Kemper. Both had been convicted of serious and violent crimes but did well in custody.  Of course once released they killed again and again.

 

Judge Carruthers said despite Poulter being offered a place to stay by a supporter upon his eventual release and doing well in prison he would not be granted parole any time soon.

That is a scary thought. How would you like to find out that your neighbor befriended a serial killer and they are going to let them move in?

“We have been at pains to tell him that that must be regarded as it is some distance away,” he said in the decision.

“There is no question that he cannot be released on parole.”

Why is it so hard to tell him that it will be a long while off? He is a killer.

Poulter will go before the board again in a year’s time.

Article

 

Hopefully they keep him locked up for a very long time.

 

Tex Watson Denied Parole

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The self-described right-hand man of cult leader Charles Manson, who was convicted of orchestrating the Tate-LaBianca slayings 42 years ago, was denied parole from a California prison Wednesday for the 16th time.

Charles “Tex” Watson, 65, was ordered to continue serving his life sentence after a hearing at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, in the Sierra foothills 50 miles southeast of Sacramento.

A two-member panel of the California Board of Parole Hearings ruled that he cannot seek a new parole hearing for another five years, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It was his 16th denial, she said, contrary to information previously provided by corrections officials that it was his 14th parole hearing.

Four relatives of Watson’s victims asked that his parole be denied for killing actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and four others at her Beverly Hills home on Aug. 9, 1969. The next night, he helped kill grocery owners Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

“There’s no question these were some of the most horrific crimes in California history in terms of the brutality, the multiple stab wounds, the gunshots, the large number of victims over a two-day period,” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequeira said. “For a group of people to just slaughter strangers in hopes of igniting a race war is extremely horrifying.”

Watson’s attorney, Cheryl Montgomery, did not return repeated telephone messages.

Watson read a statement but did not answer questions from the parole officials during the nearly five-hour hearing, Sequeira said, leaving them without enough information to decide if he is ready to be released.

“Basically the prison panel found they could not measure his true remorse or his measure of understanding of what caused him to become involved in these gruesome murders,” Sequeira said. “I think he lacks insight and understanding, I think he lacks true remorse. I think he has remorse for his being in prison all these years.”

Sequeira said he believes Watson still is a public safety risk because “he’s a man who is at the center of the Manson family. He was aware of all the crimes that all the Manson family members were involved in.”

Watson married and divorced in prison and has four children from conjugal visits, but his family did not respond to a request for comment that was left through the website that promotes Watson’s prison ministry.

The website says he was raised in Copeville, Texas, north of Dallas, and headed to California in 1967 after dropping out of college. A brief biographical sketch on the site said Watson believed Manson “offered utopia, but in reality, he had a destructive world view, which Charles ended up believing in and acting upon. His participation in the 1969 Manson murders is a part of history that he deeply regrets.”

A book he wrote while in prison is titled, “Manson’s Right-Hand Man Speaks Out!” In the past, Watson has argued that he is a changed man who has been a model prisoner and no longer is a danger to the public.

Like a killer would say anything else!

He did not attend his last parole hearing in 2006 but was portrayed in a psychiatric evaluation at the time as “a very devout fundamentalist Christian … a young, naive and gullible man (who) got into drugs and bizarre company without appreciating the deviance of the company he was keeping.”

This has to be a joke? Tex was a “good boy who just hung with the wrong people”??? No! Tex is a mass murdering, self centered, sociopath who robbed and killed people.

He was not some kid who accidently had a gun go off in a robbery or a drunken car accident.

Charles Tex Watson was, is and always will be a murderer.

Anthony DiMaria, a nephew of victim Jay Sebring, contested that view of Watson and other Manson disciples.

“They’ve often been portrayed as these victims of Manson, and they are killers. They’re mass murderers,” DiMaria said in a telephone interview before the hearing.

Agreed

He attended the hearing with his mother and sister.

Debra Tate also spoke on behalf of her late sister, Sharon, who at the time was married to film director Roman Polanski.

Tate said she was disappointed that Watson can seek parole again in five years.

“I was hoping for more than that, especially given the evidence that was laid out on the table,” she said afterward. “I was hoping for a minimum of seven.”

If he is truly repentant, Watson should provide what information he can on other crimes committed by the Manson family even if he wasn’t directly involved, she said.

Watson was convicted in a separate trial after Manson and three female followers were found guilty of the seven murders. Their death sentences were commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1972.

DiMaria said his mother has considered it her mission to speak out on behalf of her brother.

“I know that our family, myself included, feel no hatred, anger or vengeance toward them. We actually go out of love for the victims, and we also go out of justice. This is calculated, cold-blooded mass murder in which bodies were desecrated,” DiMaria said. “We want to bring the memories of the victims into the room as the commissioners deliberate on whether to parole the inmate.”

Here 

Discovery Article

Sweeping ban imposed on case of accused B.C. serial killer

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A sweeping ban has been slapped on any information dealing with the case of an accused serial killer from the Prince George, B.C., area.

The ban was issued Wednesday when Cody Alan Legebokoff appeared in B.C. Supreme Court to face four counts of first-degree murder.

The ban prohibits publication or broadcast of anything discussed in court related to the case, other than what is presented to a jury.

Legebokoff is charged in the deaths of Jill Stuchenko, 35, Cynthia Maas, 35, Loren Leslie, 15, and the disappearance of 23-year-old Natasha Lynn Montgomery.

At a hearing last week, Crown lawyer Lara Vizsolyi could not say when a trial might begin, but she said it will cover all four charges and will likely run between six months and a year.

The Crown has elected to proceed by direct indictment, meaning there will be no preliminary hearing and the matter will go straight to a trial before a Prince George jury.

Photos and more here.

I am hoping that this ban is to protect the families and survivors not the accused.

I doubt that is why but I can hope.

Serial Killer’s Appeals Are Delaying Justice Again

Additional cases pending against convicted capital murderer Elroy Chester apparently will remain on the shelf until all his appeals in the 1998 shooting death of Port Arthur firefighter Willie Ryman III are exhausted.

Court procedure had dictated that a hearing be set this week, but because the appeals still are active, the hearing was canceled. The 42-year-old death row inmate is being represented in his appeals by the Alaska law firm of Feldman, Orlansky and Sanders.

According to the firm’s website, Chester has a history of having been diagnosed by Texas schools and prisons as mentally retarded. Attorneys are trying to establish that his death sentence is unconstitutional because the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of mentally retarded offenders.

Chester’s two murder and capital murder charges stem from the Sept. 20, 1997 shooting death of John Henry Sepeda, 78; the Nov. 15, 1997 slaying of Etta Mae Stallings, 87; the Nov. 20, 1997 death of Cheryl DeLeon, 40; and the Dec. 21, 1997 death of Albert Bolden Jr., Chester’s brother-in-law.

Chester admitted killing the four. In the Ryman case, after Chester pleaded guilty, it only took a Jefferson County jury 12 minutes to sentence Chester to death.

Ryman was killed on Feb. 6, 1998 in his sister’s Port Arthur home while trying to stop Chester from sexually assaulting his teenage nieces. Chester then took jewelry from the home and fled, according to the prosecution case.

Chester testified in his trial against the advice of his defense attorneys, Doug Barlow and Layne Walker, according to Enterprise reports from the time.

Chester said on the stand that his sexual assault victims were “lucky they ain’t dead” and that he had “a whole lot of fun” committing crimes.

He told jurors if they gave him the death penalty he would order his “homeboys” to kill a Port Arthur police officer. If he received a life sentence, he said he would kill a guard in prison.
Read more

I say give him the death penalty just for those 2 last statements.

The courts have already ruled that he is not retarded.

Elroy Chester ruled not retarded, still faces execution

February 28, 2007

Thompson said that nothing in Chester’s background tests indicated mental retardation.

“By the findings presented in court, it was obvious by his adaptive behavior that he was not mentally retarded. You have to look at more than IQ scores, but at his behavior indicators. He functions normally and was never diagnosed as mentally retarded, but only that he was learning disabled, which is not the same thing at all,” Thompson said.

One of Chester’s IQ tests when he was a student in Port Arthur public schools did show that he was mildly mentally retarded, but another test also showed him with an IQ above 70, considered the threshold for retardation. When he was 18 and in prison for three burglary convictions, a Texas Department of Corrections test put his IQ at 69.

While finding evidence of “subaverage intellectual functioning persuasive,” the appeals court noted Chester did not show any deficits in his adaptive behavior, which the judges acknowledged while “inherently subjective (in) nature, is consistently the most problematic issue for factfinders to resolve when dealing with these types of claims,” according to an Associated Press story on the hearing.

“The Supreme Court really never gave solid guidelines (on determining mental retardation), and the court of Criminal Appeals has been struggling with that,” Thompson said.

The court specifically pointed to Chester’s actions when he offered to lead Port Arthur police to the gun used in his crimes. When police, acting on his directions, couldn’t find a gun he insisted was unloaded and hidden in a hole in a ceiling, he took his handcuffed and shackled hands in an opposite direction in the hole and attempted to pull out a gun officers found was fully loaded.

He is not mentally deficient, he is a predator and a jackass.

 Even before Chester’s arrest, Port Arthur police had recognized that the series of recent burglaries, assaults, rapes and murders in the Port Arthur area shared a similar modus operandi.  For instance, at many of the burglarized homes, Chester would cut the telephone lines, unscrew outdoor security lights, and wear a mask to conceal his identity.
The evidence later presented in trial suggested that Chester used the .380 pistol in the shooting deaths of Willie Ryman, John Sepeda, Cheryl DeLeon, Etta Stallings, and Albert Bolden.  Shell casings found at the crime scenes and bullets removed from the victims bodies matched characteristics of the pistol found in Chester’s home.
Chester had also attempted to use some object to alter the physical characteristics of the barrel and had filed off the serial number.
The Port Arthur police arrested him. While in custody, and after being asked to provide a blood sample, Chester told investigator Timothy Smith that he would take him to where the gun that was used in the crime was located. Chester knew Smith and seemed to trust him more than he did the other officers. Smith, two other investigators from the District Attorney’s office, and two local detectives then accompanied Chester to his father’s house. He was wearing a jail jumpsuit, as well as leg restraints attached by a chain to another chain around his waist, which in turn connected to a pair of handcuffs, thereby shackling his wrists to his waist, such that his mobility was extremely limited.
Upon reaching his father’s house, Chester attempted to move ahead of the others. Smith had admonished him that he would not be allowed to handle or touch the gun himself, but Chester insisted that he would have to locate the gun personally because it was in a place that was difficult to reach. He assured the detective that the gun was unloaded, and that he himself was the only one who would be able to reach it.
Chester led the others to his bedroom and, despite efforts to prevent him from moving ahead too quickly, walked over near his bed and dragged a small nightstand to a position directly underneath a hole in the ceiling. He began to climb on top of the nightstand, but was quickly told to stop. One of the investigators, Reginald Rose, climbed on top of the nightstand to look in the hole, and Chester directed him to look in a specific direction for the gun. Rose looked and reached around inside the hole as directed by Chester, but could not find the gun. Chester then climbed atop the same nightstand where Rose was standing and, while continuing to direct Rose to look in the same direction he had previously indicated, attempted to reach with his shackled hands in the opposite direction from where he had told Rose to look.
Smith had been watching him the entire time and, when he saw Chester reach with his hands in the other direction, drew his gun and ordered him to stop moving. He was taken down from the nightstand and escorted to sit on a nearby couch. Smith then climbed atop the nightstand himself and looked in the direction where the applicant had attempted to reach. He immediately saw the gun and retrieved it. The gun was fully loaded.
After being sentenced to death, the lawyer’s for Chester sought relief from the sentence on the ground that he was mentally retarded and it would be cruel and unusual punishment to put him to death.  The court in which he was convicted found the evidence insufficient to support the claim.
The trial court also found that Chester was capable of hiding facts and lying to protect his own interests, as demonstrated by the episode in which he told the investigators that he would take them to where he had hidden his gun, all the while apparently planning to get to the gun himself before the investigators could. Finally, the court found that the specifics of the various crimes to which he confessed, including the use of masks and gloves, his practice of cutting exterior phone lines before entering homes to burglarize, and his deliberate targeting of victims like Cheryl DeLeon and his brother-in-law Albert Bolden, showed persuasively that he was capable of forethought, planning, and complex execution of purpose.

More info about the crimes and the killer.

It is disturbing that a ‘man’ like this can claim to be retarded yet manipulate the justice system the ways that he has.

An Article from 2004 when another judge ruled Chester was not retarded. It also quotes family members of his victims.

Walter Bell’s family is celebrating today’s decision, but the family of Elroy Chester told KFDM News it isn’t ready to talk about Judge Charles Carver’s ruling.

Judge Carver decided Chester is not mentally retarded based on guidelines for the State of Texas.

Chester confessed to killing five people during a five month killing spree.

He was sentenced to death for killing Port Arthur firefighter Willie Ryman III.

Camille Eaton spoke with Ryman’s family about today’s decision.

Willie Ryman, Jr./Victim’s Father:

“He didn’t care who he killed. He killed and raped anybody.”
Read more

 

Just in case you wondered, he has found Christ, how special. He is also looking for pen pals!

GREETINGS!

My name is Elroy Chester. I’m an african American man who has been on Texas Death Row since 1998. I’n of light complexion with dark brown eyes. I’m 5’11”  and 190 pounds. I’m from Port Arthur TX and i was born June 14th 1969. During my years of incarceration I’ve turned my life over to Christ. Some of my interests include music from the 80′s (Rap and R&B) Movies (Drama, Action and Horror), Basketball, Checkers and Dominoes. I’m looking for a friend. Someone who is willing to communicate openly and who is caring and has the time to dedicate to writing in order to build a friendship.

Having a real friend on the outside can be a big support for one in a position like mine. I also want to be able to be supportive of yo while we share our good and bad times. But I’d prefer those close to my age range (38/44) Race is not a factor. I look forward to exchanging many letters. Hope to hear from you soon. I prefer to write to  a woman (note from me; aka future victim)in (38/44) and I would like to ask you if you could write in print please.  (Note from me Hahahaha!!) I would love to write to a person from Switzerland or France

Elroy  Chester

999280

If you actually want to write this monster you will have to find the address and link yourself. Sorry. I am going to give the link.

 

Family member sees ‘justice’ differently

I noted the Rev. Jeremy Tobin’s description of the justice system (“Poor, minorities paying price of ‘justice’,” Oct. 2 letter).

I thought I would offer another view – one from a victim’s family member perspective. The convicted serial killer in my own case murdered seven women in Louisiana.

Tobin states that our justice system “is built to round up black men, transfer public funds to private companies to warehouse them, and then kill them.”

This is quite different from my experience whereby serial murderer Derrick Lee was represented at trial by three very competent attorneys, one a Millsaps graduate.

As a result of overwhelming evidence – including seven bodies with his DNA, an eyewitness, and other forensic evidence – he was convicted and sentenced to death by a multiracial jury.

It is not true as Tobin says that offenders who are “well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.” Moreover, Lee is being housed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a state rather than a private institution.

Though Lee’s conviction has been upheld twice already at the level of the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana and Mississippi both allow for what is called post-conviction relief (whenever I use that term, I always pause to appreciate the utter irony of that nomenclature), which is yet another set of appeals allowed in capital cases, even those with overwhelming forensic evidence for guilt.

I will go again to Louisiana District Court on Wednesday as I have for years for yet another hearing whereby the defense attorney Gary Clements – out to “score more wins” as Tobin says the prosecutors do -files endless specious claims on behalf of his serial killer client. The post conviction process allows Clements to hijack the legal system, contrary to a rational application of the law.

To me it appears to be a clear case of defense attorneys failing to care at all about the human or fiscal cost of their actions, failing to value honor or justice for the dead, and – in my experience – contempt for the families of those who died at the hands of killers.

Here I have to agree with Tobin; our justice system is “anything but reasonable.” Were it reasonable in cases where DNA – which is considered absolute proof by the Innocence Project – is available, the obvious would be accepted. There is no logic for post-conviction appeals in such cases.

The post-conviction process should be congruent with scientific fact. Good science is the best certainty for justice for all of us – regardless of ethnicity or sex or income level.

Ann R. Pace

Jackson

Here

Fact sheet on Derrick Todd Lee

Victims

 

Court won’t name Child Molester Out shopping? We will

Court won’t name Child Molester Out shopping? We will.

http://www.mako.org.au/tempfletcher.html

Robin Angus Fletcher aka Timothy Michael Ryan

 

South African Serial Monsters

I have already written about the 5 men that were bound and killed in South Africa. There is an uproar over the fact that many feel that the police are not taking the cases seriously because the murdered men are homosexuals.  (Great article here by David Lohr.) I hope that they are wrong but they might be right.

“Cases of this nature are not taken seriously by the police or the justice department,” he said.

“It is our firm belief that the Department of Constitutional Development and Justice has to come to the party in ensuring that the plight of LGBT (and intersexed) people (receive the necessary attention and investigation),” he added.

All four victims mentioned in The Star’s report on Monday were killed in the past 10 months. They were tied up and strangled inside private homes within the greater Joburg area.

Police reported no signs of forced entry and believe these killings may be the work of a serial killer or a homophobic gang.

The lack of break-ins may mean the victims knew their would-be killers and could have invited them in.

The victim who has come to light after the previous report in The Star is Manolis Veloudos. He was found in his home in Greenside in April last year.

He was bound and murdered, seemingly by someone he had invited into his home. Again, there was no sign of forced entry onto the property, and very little was stolen.

More Here

South African serial killer / rapist Sello Phalane will be heading to court this week. He is charged with 5 counts of rape, murder and robbery.

“The man allegedly raped, robbed and killed five women between 2008 and 2009 around the Dennilton area,” Lt-Col Mohale Ramatseba said on Friday.

He was arrested at Diskom taxi rank in Zebediela in September 2009, while selling CDs, Ramatseba said.

Eva Lekalakala, 41, was the first of his alleged victims and was killed in June 2008. Her remains were found at Spitpunt, in Dennilton. She was later identified through DNA tests, said Ramatseba.

Josephine Manamela, 38, was killed in August 2008 and her decomposed body was found at Ga Maria village between Vall Bank and Dennilton.

In February of 2009, the naked body of an unknown woman, around 30, was found in the bushes at Driefontein in Dennilton.

The remains of Margaret Seretlo, 41, were found at Driefontein in Dennilton in July 2009, as were those of Elizabeth Kobe, 36.

The trial is set down from Monday until Friday.

Phalane was not granted bail and remains in police custody.

From Here

The last article that I am going to make you aware of is also out of South Africa and deals with the worst kind of monster.  There is one suspect linked to 21 child rapes and one child who was murdered.

Police believe that a series of child rapes, which occurred over 16 months, was the work of a single suspect.

But it was only after the Khayelitsha community rallied that police were able to track a suspect to an informal settlement in Philippi.

A 25-year-old man was arrested and initially charged with the failed abduction of a six-year-old girl, but police say investigations have linked the suspect to a string of other cases.

He has now been charged with 22 counts of abduction, 21 of rape and one murder, all involving girls aged between two and nine.

Police are investigating whether the suspect was involved in more crimes. 

How can anyone find a child ‘sexually arousing’? At 2 years of age? This is so beyond my understanding that I do not even try to make any sense of it.

It is alleged that the suspect conducted a 16-month reign of terror in the area around Monwabisi Park, Harare and Lingelethu West in Khayelitsha, but it was only after a four-year-old girl was murdered and a six-year-old girl managed to escape after allegedly being abducted that residents and police realised they had a serial rapist on their hands.

Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer said police were continuing to investigate, scanning reported cases to find out whether the suspect was involved.

On September 12, Aviwe Speelman was playing with her two-year-old brother in the yard of her parents’ home in Endlovini. Her parents were inside at the time.

After 20 minutes they realised Aviwe was gone and were told by her tearful brother that a man had taken his sister to the shop to buy chips, but he had been ordered to stay behind.

Her family, neighbours and police searched through the night for the little girl. The next day residents brought their dogs to join the search and later that day dogs sniffing in the bushes that border Monwabisi Park found Aviwe’s body.

Police Warrant Officer November Filander said Aviwe had been raped and strangled.

Her body had been covered with twigs and leaves, and her clothing lay next to her, Mbuwako said.

Just days later, the six-year-old disappeared.

Mbuwako said that at 4pm that day, the girl was seen with a man. She was holding chips. When residents chased the pair, the man let go of the girl’s hand and fled.

Mbuwako said that after this incident, residents had held a meeting during which some said they knew the man.

Residents had speculated that the man could be responsible for a spate of rapes in Harare and Lingelethu West.

He said there had been many rapes in those areas, but residentshad no way of knowing whether the same person was involved.

Three girls had been raped in one week, he said.

Police had been investigating the six-year-old’s abduction and this had led them to an informal settlement in Philippi, Filander said.

A man was arrested on the night of September 20 and initially charged only with the girl’s abduction.

At the time, police said the abduction and Aviwe’s death were unrelated.

When the man was arrested, forensic evidence had not yet been finalised, Lamoer said.

“Last week, thanks to forensic evidence, we started putting the picture together,” he added.

DNA evidence had linked one suspect to both crimes, along with 20 other abductions and rapes.

It was clear from the sheer number of rapes that police were dealing with a serial rapist, Lamoer said.

The crimes for which the man has been charged date from April last year to last month. All the victims were girls aged between two and nine, he said.

“We will continue investigations and see if other reported cases can be linked,” said the commissioner.

With Aviwe being raped and murdered by strangulation I am guessing that the killer was ‘advancing’, escalating in his desires. Rape was not enough anymore, even if it was the rape of a small child. He needed more to be fulfilled. I would be willing to bet that there would have been many more little girls raped and murdered after poor Aviwe.

The suspect appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on Friday. The case was postponed to November 1.

Dey said residents in areas like Khayelitsha took crimes against children very seriously and authorities often had to step in to calm angry residents down.

When children were raped in Khayelitsha, some residents threatened to take matters into their own hands, Dey said, because these crimes were “not an accepted thing”.

Full article

There are all kinds of mythical monsters said to be living in South Africa but it is the real monsters that horrify me.

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